Rods are like any other tools—they have different weights, lengths, shapes, and perform different functions.  You wouldn’t putt with a driver or pound a nail with a big wrench, and you wouldn’t go after walleyes with a panfish rod.  Rods are tools designed for specific jobs, and unless you select the appropriate one for the job, you can end up with a fishing experience that’s unpleasant, inefficient, and somewhat dangerous.  Better to select the proper tool for the job to begin with.

The key to any fishing situation, tacklewise, is to balance rod, reel, line, and lure to conditions.  Which rod to choose?  You’ll find a bewildering array on the market, and even manufacturers don’t agree on rod action and terminology.  So we need common ground, a frame of reference, to be able to discuss what’s what and who’s who.  Let’s begin with a bit of historical foundation for understanding modern rod design and development.

The first Skyline graphite rods hit the market in the early ‘70s, revolutionizing the rod business.  The lightweight, thin-diameter blanks felt like toys but were sensitive and powerful compared to the fiberglass rods of the era.  Graphite gained rapid acceptance and popularity among serious anglers.  By the late ‘70s, graphite or graphite composite rods dominated the industry.  Since then, rod makers have experimented with more expensive products like boron, but they’ve kept coming back to graphite as the backbone of the rod manufacturing process.  The combination of graphite properties is tough to beat.

Graphite fibers provide the sensitivity that allows you to feel changes through the line and rod—strikes, bites, rocks, soft bottom, weeds—everything.  You don’t have to see a rod tip bend to detect a walleye bite, though it’s always a good idea to watch the tip.

Today’s rods offer high-modulus (stiffness), state-of-the-art technology, but design properties must be balanced in order for rods to be effective and durable.  Too stiff, too thin, too lightweight, and they shatter when overloaded or fail under the cumulative punishment of hard fishing.  Rods must have a blend of characteristics, not only ultimate strength.  Light, flexible rods for light line presentations.  Powerful rods for casting large lures and setting hooks with heavy monofilament, taking out inherent line stretch and burying steel.

A new generation of fishing rods and reels designed to be fished with superlines is appearing on the market.  Ironically, to compensate for the lack of line stretch, these rods are softer and more flexible than traditional rod designs—an apparent throwback to those glorious days of yesteryear and their soft-tipped rods.  Difference is, they’re still highly sensitive graphite, just with softer actions to match ultrasensitive, no-stretch line.  What’s going on underwater is transmitted via the line, whichever rod you use.

Superlines have led many anglers to dig around in their garages to relocate castoff rods considered too soft or not sensitive enough for mono.  They might perform surprisingly well with no-stretch line.

Rod Design—Sensitive Muscle
You’d think terminology would exist for a product that’s been around a long time.  But it seems that no two manufacturers can agree on what a medium-action rod is.  

Theoretically, it’s some blend of strength and bend, but no industry standard is in place, and rod makers continue to foster confusion based on personal or company philosophy.

Permit a generalization:  companies that cater heavily to trout anglers and fly-fishers seem to offer medium-action noodles in their spinning and casting series; their rod designers have dainty finesse instead of sensitive muscle on the brain.  To keep it plain and simple, their rods tend to be too soft, bending at mid-length instead of at the tip.

Companies catering more to bass and walleye anglers usually offer more oomph in their medium-action rods.  Since terminology is confusing, oomph is as good a word as anything else, though sensitive muscle has a nice ring to it.  Let’s try to describe it better.

Action

Other than heavy trolling conditions, most good rods offer a fast action or taper.  They remain rigid in the butt and midsection and bend in the upper third near the rod tip.  A fast tip loads up quickly to cast lightweight lures, bends when a livebait rig or jig is lifted, and betrays light bites by flexing.  They also have sufficient beef to set the hook and fight the fish while performing well with 4- to 10-pound-test line.  A moderate-action rod, by comparison, tends to bend into the midsection and is perhaps better for casting or trolling heavier lures like crankbaits.  Action, therefore, best describes the bend in the rod.  The term action commonly designates different models.

Power

Power, on the other hand, describes the strength of the rod, ultralight being a limber rod for tiny lures, heavy being a rod for heavy lures.  Problem is, it’s easy to confuse these terms with ultralight action or heavy action.  An ultralight rod doesn’t have to display a slow bend.  Action and power aren’t necessarily interchangeable.  The word power is seldom used to describe rods, but we’ll use it here.

The best description for a good finesse walleye rod would probably be a fast-action, moderate-power spinning rod.  Good luck finding that description on a rod blank or in a catalog.  What you will find instead is something like “6-foot medium-action, 4-10 lb.  line, 1/8- to 3/8-ounce lures.”  This approximate line weight and lure size designation is a tip-off for medium power, but it’s no guarantee.  Thereafter, you need to pick up the rod and use your own judgment.  Don’t just read the label, or you’re destined for disappointment.

Check the designation on the label.  If it’s something like 3/8- to 1-ounce lures, you’re more on target than with lighter rods, assuming you like the way it bends and feels.  You’ll be able to troll 3-ounce sinkers, even though the rod supposedly tops out at 1 ounce (recommended maximum casting weight).  Just don’t try casting 3-ounce sinkers!

Other options?  Spinning rods for casting slipfloats tend to be longer (7 feet) and offer moderate action so they can toss featherweight floats on 4-pound line.  Downrigger rods are at the opposite end of the power scale:  8-foot heavy rods with medium-fast tapers that bend dramatically under tension and spring upward on the strike to help set hooks.

And now, superlines enter the field, turning the whole design process topsy-turvy.  Rod design categories are in a quandary, a state of flux.  Years ago, most designers felt superlines would be a passing fad, so they tailored few products to them.  Now, with fused superlines like FireLine and SpiderWire Fusion gaining popularity, some companies are finally designing rods specifically for superline use.

Mono is far from dead, and superlines are far from taking over the market.  Mono will always be important, while superlines are likely to occupy more than just a niche.  How rodmakers will designate rods in the future is anybody’s guess.  The question now:  how far should you go to equip yourself for the new lines?

The answer depends on you.  Best advice is to walk before you run, dog-paddle before you freestyle.  Chances are you may already own rods you can use for testing these new waters.  And ironically, those manufacturers we characterized as marketing too-soft-for-bass-and-walleye noodle rods may have, in fact, unwittingly carved a niche in the superline rod market by offering products with more flex and less oomph—technically speaking.